Special Olympics - Have A Go

On Wednesday 10th and 17th August Table Tennis Tauranga hosted Have A go days for groups gathered by Special Olympics Bay of Plenty's Colleen Black.

The first day saw 40 students from Kaka St School and it's satellite units (Tauranga Boys, Te Puke, Papamoa, Aquinas and Otumoetai) visit for 2 one hour sessions.  At the height of activity there were 7 stations set up, with students rotating every 8 minutes.  There were varied capabilities, with one Tauranga Boys student having a hugely impressive topspin game!

Stag Tabletop Robot Machines were operated at 3 of the stations, with the assistance of local juniors Matt Slade and Xavier Lea.  These ran for two players at a time on the second day and were very popular throughout.

Paul Henderson and Pauline Wilkinson from Table Tennis Tauranga provided individual tuition on other tables, with many graduating on to open doubles play on another table.

The second had a group from Trident school in Whakatane, and the Avalon Group from Tauranga.  Several of the latter were already regular table tennis players, and showed their skills.  But, the best skills on the robot machines were shown by a couple of younger players from Trident.

Thank you to Colleen Black for arranging a great event, and special thanks to Paul Henderson for planning the venue logistics, and thanks so much for the great, cheerful, assistance from Marian, Pansy, Vikki, Pauline, Matt and Xavier.  A great time was had by all.

John Lea.